


Mutatis Mutandis

by seraphichan



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gen, Getting Together, Sort Of, background ereri and springles, there's future implications of it anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 10:29:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13385940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphichan/pseuds/seraphichan
Summary: “Mikasa?”Well, so much for escaping.She turned with a polite “Hello”, tried not to squint too noticeably as she studied the man beside her. Something about him seemed familiar, and then it hit her.“Jean?” she said with the same unsurety as he did.





	Mutatis Mutandis

**Author's Note:**

> I may or may not still be in love with Mikasa's new hair and it may or may not have inspired me to write yet another fic lol

“You're sure this was necessary?”

“Of course!” Sasha poked her fork full of pasta at Mikasa as she spoke. “Change is good! And changing your look is, like, _the_ primo way of getting over an ex. It makes you feel powerful and confident.”

“I feel ridiculous.” Mikasa tugged at her bangs and frowned. It's not like she had never cut her hair before, but it had never been this short. “Plus it seems like a bad time.”

“It's never a bad time to get your groove back.”

“No, I mean Eren’s wedding is this weekend.”

Sasha gasped loudly. “Is it?! Will your dress still fit?! I mean, you've lost _so_ much hair! Oh my _gaaad!_ ”

Sasha put her hand to her forehead dramatically and pretended to swoon. Mikasa snorted and cracked a smile.

“You worry too much. You look great, and I _guarantee_ you are going to cause awkward boners.”

“That seems far-fetched.”

“It definitely isn't. And you should use that to your advantage. Go have wild and crazy ‘I'm a changed woman, single at a wedding, the world is my oyster’ sex.”

“Sasha, no.”

“But you _have_ to. For the both of us. I can't. Look at this.” Sasha patted her belly. She was seven months along, though it didn't really show. “No one wants to go a round with this. Well, except Connie.”

“He put that bun there, so I would hope so,” Mikasa said, nibbling at a breadstick and trying to decide if she wanted another glass of wine.

“True, but, I mean, he gets super into it, super freaky with it. Like just last weekend he--”

Mikasa stuffed her breadstick into Sasha’s mouth to keep her from continuing and called the waiter over to the table.

+++++

The day of the wedding was beautiful, if not a little blustery. Springtime in New York was fickle like that. The reception was held at a winery in the countryside, in a marble-floored ballroom that opened onto a patio overlooking the rows of grapevines which seemed to stretch forever into the distance. There was an open fireplace on the opposite end of the room where a majority of the guests gathered until the dancing and the drink heated them more than the scented, burning wood.

Mikasa mingled to the best of her ability. Most of the guests she didn't know, and the rest she should have but she had forgotten over the years. She hovered around Armin, who had always been better at conversation, and contributed when it seemed appropriate. Her true best friend of the evening, though, was a pale, fruity rosé that had been keeping her company since the appetizers appeared.

“Go talk to someone,” Sasha pleaded for what seemed like the millionth time when she found Mikasa later in the evening, trying to hide at an empty table near the DJ.

“I'm fine.”

“So help me, if you do not get up, I will drag someone over here myself.”

Mikasa stood, wine glass still clamped in her hand as she made a beeline towards the edge of the dance floor. This seemed to satisfy Sasha, or maybe she just got distracted tending to Connie who was shouting “I'm drinking for two!” yet again as he downed a row of shots at the open bar. Either way, her watchful eyes were gone, and Mikasa took the opportunity to escape onto the patio instead.

“Mikasa?”

Well, so much for escaping.

She turned with a polite “Hello”, tried not to squint too noticeably as she studied the man beside her. Something about him seemed familiar, and then it hit her.

“Jean?” she said with the same unsurety as he did.

He smiled and she sighed in relief.

“I'm glad I got the right person,” Jean said, mirroring her relief. “I've been playing Guess Who all night. It's been too long.” He paused. “You changed your hair.”

Mikasa touched her bangs. “Sorry.”

“For what? It looks really good.”

“Thanks. And you, um...you have a beard.”

It was short and stubby, like he had just decided to grow it the day before.

“Yeah, I've been working on this for two months.”

Oh.

Mikasa bit the inside of her lip to keep from smiling and possibly offending him.

“I just wanted to change it up a little.”

“Change is good,” Mikasa said, repeating Sasha’s words. There was a prolonged silence and she realized that the comment, as well intentioned as it was, might have been insulting without the context in her head. “No, I only meant...I think it makes you look…”

Mikasa pursed her lips and tried to think of a flattering word.

“Like a 70’s porn star?”

Mikasa’s shoulders shuddered with a barely contained laugh as they turned toward Eren. He sauntered over, Levi in tow, both of them red-faced and glassy-eyed and a little shaky on their feet. She was happy they were enjoying their wedding so much, even if she was a little concerned about Levi, who she had never seen even remotely intoxicated before.

Jean snorted. “Bite me, Yeager.”

“Excuse you,” Levi piped up, words only slightly slurred, “I didn’t say anything about your shitty facial hair.”

“I meant Ere--wait, but you just did the same thing and you’re--and he’s--aaagh.” Jean rubbed at his temples in frustration. “This is going to get confusing.”

“Doesn’t take much with you,” Eren teased.

“Eren,” Mikasa sighed.

“He knows I’m kidding.” Eren gave Mikasa an affectionate peck on the cheek that hit her ear instead. “Don’t get handsy,” he warned, looking pointedly at Jean as Levi steered him back to the party inside, Jean saluting him with both middle fingers as he went.

“Distinguished,” Mikasa finished after a moment, before the silence got too long and Jean stewed on the incorrigible statements of her brother. “That’s what I was going to say. About your beard.”

He turned to her, eyes narrowing in disbelief. Mikasa clamped her lips shut, succeeding in keeping a straight face for only a few seconds before she couldn’t take his penetrating stare anymore.

“Distinguished like a 70’s porn star,” she said in a small voice filled with apology and mirth, her eyes closing for the briefest moment in shame.

Jean’s straight face lasted even less time than Mikasa’s before he broke out into laughter.

“I know,” he chuckled. “I know. It’s so thin and itchy, and it probably makes me look like a creeper. And on that horrible note...do you, uh,” he scratched at his undercut, “do you want to dance?”

Mikasa smiled, placed her wine glass on one of the tables on the patio, and took Jean’s hand.

+++++

“So…” Sasha began after she made sure Connie’s groggy form was steadily balanced against the door of their uber, “you and Jean, eh?”

Mikasa rolled her eyes. “Nothing happened.”

“Uh, yeah-huh it did.” Sasha scooted closer to her. “You two spent all night dancing and talking to each other. And I'm pretty sure you gave him that awkward boner thing I mentioned the other day.”

“He's nice,” Mikasa said, ignoring the latter half of Sasha’s comment. “Funny.”

“He always has been.”

“Really?” Mikasa hummed. “We didn't talk much in high school.”

She didn't talk to much of anyone but Armin and Eren. Sasha and Connie didn't become close friends until university.

“That's probably for the best,” Sasha mused. “He actually looks like a viable human being now.”

“Sasha.”

“Seriously, though! He always had a long face, and he was all tall and twiggy. He grew into, well, everything.”

“Is that why Eren always called him horseface?” she asked, wondering if she remembered the unfortunate nickname correctly.

“Probably.” Sasha laughed. “Hey, you're staying with us for the night, right? I'll dig out our senior yearbook and we can take a look. Then we can lament all the poor life choices we made in our teens.”

Mikasa groaned. It was silent for a few moments and then Sasha, curiosity not to be contained, asked

“Did he ask you out?”

“No.”

Sasha was right, they did talk a lot, which brought up the fact that Mikasa was newly single.

And that Jean was the same.

There was an unspoken understanding between them that they both had stuff they wanted to work through, and that stumbling into a brand new relationship when wounds were still fresh would be something they would regret. The chemistry was there, but it was too soon to explore it.

“But we have each other’s number,” she said before Sasha could make a fuss. “We can call and text and video chat. Get to actually know each other first.”

“Yeah, alright.”

She still looked glum, so Mikasa elbowed her gently.

“It’s all thanks to you, you know.”

Sasha blinked at her.

“The hair cut. You were right.”

Sasha’s pout turned into a smile. “Well, you’re welcome. At least _someone_ listens to me.”

Connie moaned as if on cue and they both laughed, and Mikasa thought of Jean and change and how everything was good and could only get better.


End file.
